Excellent action/scifi-thriller

Rating: 9/10 (1 August 2005)

Nevermind Michael Bay's notoriety in social Hollywoodlife, never mind The Islands surprisingly uneventful opening weekend domestically in North America - The Island is a definite must-see at the movies (or at the very least buy on DVD).
I commend it first and foremost for a brilliant science-fiction story, that touches on real-life contemporary political eugenics-, stem cell research- and cloning issues. Although the movie demands a certain level of suspension of disbelief (notably as regards where any form of governmental/federal surveillance authority might have been, allowing such a large-scale business within a controversial branch to operate unethically and decidedly in severe penal code violation, in enormous facilities, without intervening), it provides a very interesting and stimulating contribution to the ongoing evolution of our thought-process as concerns these very substantial and literally vital political and cultural issues.
I certainly was also very fascinated by the very elaborate designs, incredible cinematography (something akin to Mr. & Mrs Smith), futuristic urban images to rival Bladerunner, Minority Report and The 5th Element (I'm serious!) and thoroughly intelligent, but not (thankfully) overly intellectualized and artsy screenplay.
The film to some extent also invokes associations to (the original) The Matrix, and several other seminal movies from later years. Again, this IS a must see. Difference between this film and many other big-budget futuristic and/or philosophical concept movies, is that it better than most balances well between too radical, contrived and grave future visions (The Matrix, Minority Report) on the one hand, and too ridiculous and theatrical (artsy) effort (5th Element and many more) on the other.
But heck, I'm an earthly male, I'm alive and kicking and I don't have (hopefully) too many intellectual hang-ups, so even the added bonus of seeing Scarlett Johansson looking better than ever before, would be enough to sell the movie to a relatively simple soul as myself. Thank you, Michael Bay - I appreciate your male chauvinist talents, so you can't be too bad! ;) Scarlett Johansson always looked very good, but in this movie she looks even better than Charlize Theron, and I've never noticed that before :) I could also identify well with both characters played by Ewan McGregor, and all other characters were very believable as well. Lots of great acting throughout, and Steve Buscemi provides comic relief as well as he ever has - which in my view says quite a lot! As it happens, I am not from North America, and the marketing where I live - Bergen, Norway - was neither confusing, bungled or too thin. I saw it in a packed auditorium in a screening commencing at about 23.00 (or 11 pm, if you may) - on a Sunday night! And I did not hear one single complaint from anyone on the way out, which is rather seldom as Norwegian audiences usually are about as critically minded as any audience, but I suspect that, as with War of the Worlds, people were to a great extent still too consumed by the emotional impact of the film (or just the sheer freaked-out-ness of having seen a somewhat realistic nightmare vision of a society in the not-too-distant future that embraces genetic engineering and cloning all out) to be all that chatty.
As for me, I was partly freaked out, partly thoroughly action-ridden and partly on cloud 9 - my head filled with blissful images of a Scarlett looking better than ever :) No wonder Woody Allen calls her his new big muse.
(Hey, why don't someone make a remake of Gone with the Wind, where Johansson can play Scarlett O'Hara? She'd be the best woman in the role ever, and she wouldn't even have to get accustomed to a new forename for the role... ;)